ID thief on shopping spree gets 75 months

A 25-year-old Tacoma man who stole credit card slips from hotel guests and used the information to buy thousands of dollars worth of goods, including Rolex watches, was sentenced to 75 months in prison Thursday.

Stephen Smith, 25, arranged for a janitor at the Hampton Inn in Tukwila to steal the credit card slips of about 400 guests, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He apparently liked expensive things, using the stolen numbers and other personal information to buy Cartier watches, expensive jewelry, autographed sports memorabilia and other luxury items online. He used real names and credit card numbers but found ways to get around security measures and had goods shipped to various addresses in Pierce County.

Judge Benjamin Settle, with the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, sentenced Smith to 75 months in prison, 5 years of supervised release and $120,807 in restitution for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Smith was arrested in November and pleaded guilty in February. He had charged about $120,000 between August and November 2007. He kept some items and sold or pawned others for cash. Smith had ordered another $130,000 worth of goods but authorities caught him and stopped delivery on those items.

Smith “has been on a more-or-less continuous crime spree since he was about 16,” Assistant United States Attorney Kurt Hermanns wrote in the sentencing memo.